Elon Musk's unmanned SpaceX Starship experienced a failure today:
SpaceX’s engineers are still sorting through exactly what went wrong with the uncrewed vehicle. Mid-climb, a few of the 33 Raptor engines appeared to flame out. Within three minutes of liftoff, the Super Heavy booster was supposed to separate, but that never occurred. Instead Starship began to spin wildly, tumbling through the sky. Then, the vehicle exploded, which SpaceX later said was triggered on purpose with flight-termination commands sent to both the rocket and booster.
SpaceX expressed it this way:
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.”
Addendum: Explanation in one of the Comments. But it reminds me of this old skit:
"wardrobe malfunction"
ReplyDelete"conscious uncoupling"
"inoperative"
Right up there with "conscious uncoupling." And 1984.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on another forum said this sarcastic euphemism has been around the space industry for some time; it wasn't invented for this blowup. Can anyone confirm or deny?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the discussion here, the term apparently goes back at least to the 80s, or possibly even the 60s: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/10022/who-coined-the-phrase-rapid-unscheduled-disassembly
ReplyDeleteInteresting. And an excellent link. Thank you, anonymous person.
DeleteAh, that was me :) For some reason the comment section didn't recognize me.
DeleteThere are a number of similar acronyms and names in use in the model rocketing community like ,CATO (said by some to mean "crashed at takeoff") and "Prang" which indicates your parachute didn't deploy and your rocket "landed" like a lawn dart
ReplyDeletehttps://space.stackexchange.com/questions/10022/who-coined-the-phrase-rapid-unscheduled-disassembly
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I watching the news last night:
ReplyDelete“So much for being reusable.”
“Who wants to join Musk’s Mars mission now?”
“Musk now has the world record for the largest exploding rocket and Bezos has the record for the largest sex toy in space.”
“And neither of them are using taxpayer money “
DeleteIs that what you think? No taxpayer support??
Delete"Los Angeles entrepreneur Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space.
And he’s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies.
Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups.
“He definitely goes where there is government money,” said Dan Dolev, an analyst at Jefferies Equity Research. “That’s a great strategy, but the government will cut you off one day.”
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html
No one said anything about government support/subsidies. Most people receive thousands of dollars in government support via their mortgage interest deduction. That is not the same thing as the government paying your mortgage. You can get a subsidy if you buy certain EVs. Does that mean the government paid for your car?
DeleteThe mortgage interest deduction and the subsidy for your new car are often referred to as welfare for the upper classes.
DeleteThat is not the same thing as the government paying your mortgage.
DeleteIt is exactly that.
It's only not the same in a world where there's a difference between a rocket blowing up and having an spontaneous plasma-accelerated expansive disassembly.
Minnesotan: I'm glad you brought that up. The business geniuses who whine loudest about "entitlements" and government spending are often the ones whose companies benefit from (if not outright own their existence to) government subsidies. Public-private partnerships always seem to work out to "losses paid for by the public, profits paid to the private company." No wonder they're so popular.
ReplyDeleteYep. Ask TWA and Eastern Airlines how those public private partnerships worked out. And US Steel…
DeleteTWA was destroyed by bad management and then raided by the loathsome Carl Ichan who sold off all the remaining assets (for dividends of course). In other words: privatize the profits and leave the government on the hook, just like Smurf said...
DeleteOr, maybe an expanded version: "Really, really quickly happening, like super fast, surprising and unexpected, and serendipitous, big huge thing coming apart, into many small pieces and busted stuff, with smoke and fire too. Wow."
ReplyDeleteThat video is hilarious. Oh, and remind me to never buy a ticket on a Musk space ship.
ReplyDeleteGo easy on them. Far more Tesla cars have exploded than SpaceX Rockets.
ReplyDeleteTesla delivered 422,875 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023. One report of a battery fire as of April 12th.
Delete! Space X Rocket has launched in 2023. One had a sudden disassembly.